Michéal Ó Muircheartaigh with Bishop of Killaloe Fintan
Monahan at an event where the retired commentator spoke
about his Faith. Photo: Diocese of Killaloe. Acclaimed Gaelic games commentator Michéal Ó Muircheartaigh, who amassed over 60 years of broadcasting before his retirement in 2010, died on Tuesday at the age of 93. Throughout his celebrated career, which was mostly associated with radio coverage of games, he made reference to his Faith and proudly spoke of how he had been a member of the Pioneer Association since his formative years in primary school.
Speaking a number of years ago about the presence of the Pioneers in his life, Ó Muircheartaigh said that he never felt in any way disadvantaged in society by displaying his pin or by his membership of the Pioneers and in 2011 fervently criticised any potential closure of the Pioneer Association as being “a retrograde step”.
One of his earliest and most abiding memories growing up on the Dingle coastline in Kerry was a prayer instilled by his grandmother, a prayer that resonated deeply with him towards the latter half of his life.
“I learned something at a very young age, and it came from my grandmother at that time, and she said, a prayer taught to me in my youth, ‘To wake every morning with enthusiasm for the day ahead’, that was the end of the prayer,” he said.
“‘To wake every morning with enthusiasm for the day ahead.’ And I think it’s a great motto. I always stuck to that. Be full of hope in the morning, be full of hope in the beginning of the year, and spread that, if you like, among people, in schools and wherever you got yourself in years to come.”